Report: Majority of Medicaid patients' visits to emergency department are necessary

Medicaid patients who visit the emergency department (ED) are seeking treatment for urgent and serious problems, according to a new report from the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC).

The report, which sought to fact check several commonly held beliefs about ED use in Medicaid, found that just 10% of ED visits by Medicaid enrollees were for non-urgent reasons.

 

Barriers in accessing primary care were also found to be a cause of higher ED use by Medicaid enrollees, according to MACPAC.

 

Source: MACPAC